The seminar will
address the practicality of Aikido techniques in our daily life. Participants
will enjoy the in depth explanation of the techniques and some tips on how to
execute them effortlessly. As Aikido is also the “do” to self-discovery, the seminar seeks to share the philosophy
of harmonizing the self and the Universe, thus provides the space for
self-healing from the stressful life.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Aikido was created by Founder Morihei Ueshiba. Ueshiba Sensei used to
say that aikido was created to lead Japanese martial arts in the right
direction.

This is certainly true. Aikido represents a major departure from its
predecessor arts that focused exclusively on winning or defeating an
opponent. It was created as an art to foster moral character.

It is natural that the way to present aikido techniques differs
greatly from that of other martial arts. It goes without saying that
aikido techniques are highly complex and sophisticated. The case is very
different from judo and karate, martial arts that I once studied.

I first began my study of aikido nearly fifty years ago. About ten
years ago, certain people in the world of Japanese martial arts began to
doubt that aikido was a martial art. This was only natural because people at that time blindly followed the same training practice of their younger days.

This has been a cause of concern for me because if we continue to
training in the same way as before that these criticisms will someday
reflect reality and aikido will cease to be a martial art.

This doubt concerning the martial nature of aikido can be heard often both in Japan and abroad.
But from that time we have done our best to convey the words of
O-Sensei to present-day practitioners and exemplify these principles in
our own practice.

O-Sensei often said: “Aikido includes not only empty-handed
techniques but also the sword and stick, that is, the ken and jo. There
are techniques for every possible situation.”
It is important to keep this in mind.

We have always stressed this principle in our training. Thus, in our
aikido practice we always train to be able immediately use the ken or jo
from any technique according to the individual situation.